I worked a bit on the website recently, particularly the header graphic.  I hope you find it to be more pleasing.    I think I will rest at this point and see if it ages well.

Also, we have done some talking and planning around the issue of underwriting.  Underwriting is people, companies, foundations, etc, paying for us to broadcast our programs in exchange for a little underwriting blurb which gives them credit for doing so.

I think we have sketched out a pretty good pricing schedule and sales approach.  Possibly in our next board meeting we will be able to approve the pricing and publish it.  Along with that we will need policies which encapsulate the FCC rules about underwriting blurbs.  We are fortunate that many public radio stations have put their policies on the web, so we have some good examples to follow.

Disclaimer: I am definitely not a tax lawyer or tax accountant or a tax anything else, so do not take what I have to say as anything authoritative!

We have been looking at the 501(c)3 “application for recognition of exemption” form from the IRS  (form 1023).  Wow!  It’s a monster.  I’m going to take a nice quiet hour this evening and go through it and fill out the easy stuff.  And then we will know what the hard stuff is!

When we created our non-profit corporation using the tools at the State of Mississippi Secretary of State’s website, they were very helpful in pointing out three paragraphs of text that needed to be in our founding documents if we wanted to later apply for 501(c)3 exemption.  We did  include those.

According to what I’m reading, any organization can call themselves a 501(c)3 and act as if they are one, up to the point where they go over a threshold amount on their annual gross receipts.  And churches don’t have to apply either.

But, we are sincerely hoping to exceed that threshold in getting our equipment funding, we will pretty much have to in order to buy the stuff we need.

What is the benefit of being 501(c)3?  It means that contributions to our organization are tax deductible, just like to a church or the United Way.  We will be a ‘charity’.  One source of money for charity organizations is grants from government or from foundations.  We have looked into that a little bit.  Everything I have seen requires a 501(c)3 determination be in hand before they will consider your application.  And plain old folks, whether rich philanthropists or poor philanthropists, will appreciate their contributions being tax deductible.

Now, I’m of two minds about the charity thing.  Once we get up and running I sincerely hope we can sustain ourselves on underwriting income.  I hope that we have enough community presence and listeners to convince local businesses that their name will be heard and well received.  But to get on the air we need a big up-front bump to buy the equipment.  I want to do radio, I don’t want to be perpetually begging for money.  Sure, I’ll do it for awhile, but that’s not really the part that I’m good at or that interests me.  (There do exist people who are professional fund raisers. I’m not one of those.)

Link to our fundraiser

Synopsis

This is a fundraiser to buy equipment to launch an audio-books radio station on the FM dial and internet streaming.

Why

We look at the state of education today. Why aren’t people graduating from highschool? Why are colleges having to do remedial work? And what about the people who are the product of this system over the last few decades and are now out trying to make their living? We don’t blame teachers or administrators. Some of the best minds in the country are interested in making our education system work. But we want to do something that may help.

Would an increased familarity with classic works of literature lead to a broader interest in literacy, a better understanding of history and more appreciation for people of other places and times?

It is a sure bet that more rock/country/hip-hop/sports/political-talk on the radio, more of the same stuff playing today, leaves most of radio out. It’s just another entertainment backwater. Public radio is a great source for national news and some insightful and interesting programming.

What

We want a public-radio feel with a classic literature content. We would love to have commentary, interviews with authors, editorials which put current events in the light of history, local works, local authors… there’s a whole world out there which is waiting to be opened up.

We have a population we can serve: folks who don’t read for one reason or another, those folks who don’t go to the library and have no idea of the treasures between book covers. And there are people who are just too busy trying to keep up with the world, we’ll serve them a bit of poetry during their drive to work.

The content is ready. Volunteers have prepared an incredible resource at librivox.org.

Who

We are a husband and wife in Columbus, MS. We work. We don’t have time to save the world. But maybe we can focus enough of the random energy of humanity on our corner of the world to get this project going. We registered a non-profit corporation, Classic Book Radio with this specific goal: to improve literacy through the broadcast of classic works of literature.

We have experience in IT and radio and we love books.

You

If you are interested in radio, would like to see a new format on the air;

if you are interested in books and want other people to love them like you do;

if you are interested in education and want to help push back the dark cloud of ignorance

please contribute to our project.